Monday, 31 March 2014

A campaign is launched today which suggests an obvious move forward for our capital city: a designation as the country's newest National Park.

We see no reason why London shouldn't join the Peak District, Snowdonia and the Norfolk Broads as having a designation as a National Park.
The city has a breadth of habitats, and a diversity of wildlife that rival some of the existing parks. Check out the new WEBSITE to find out more.

From the press release...

The Greater London National Park* was launched today, celebrating the importance and diversity of London’s urban habitat. It may sound like an April fools joke, but it is not.

It is only a “notional park” for now, but geographer Daniel Raven-Ellison is calling for the public to back the idea.“There is this idea that a National Park has to be remote and rural, but cities are incredibly important habitats too. An amazing 13,000 species of wildlife can be found in London’s open spaces which together make up 60% of the Greater London National Park*. In London we have peregrine falcons, 13 species of amphibian and reptile, pigeons, over 8 million people and countless dogs and cats too. The Greater London National Park* celebrates all life.

”National Parks are currently funded by central government to conserve and enhance natural beauty, wildlife and their cultural heritage; and promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of National Parks by the public. These objectives could be applied to a city like London as well the countryside.

Raven-Ellison makes clear that he is not proposing any changes to planning policy in the capital, or that the Greater London National Park* would have the planning powers that so many residents in current National Parks dislike.

“I am proposing a new kind of National Park – an ‘urban’ National Park that would aim to conserve and promote London’s awesome ability to be dynamic, innovate and evolve. The Park’s role would be to inform and inspire best practice, while helping to better co-ordinate and promote London’s biodiversity and recreational opportunities, especially those in outer London.”

Raven-Ellison, a geographer and National Geographic Emerging Explorer, argues that the park would create a new way to see and think about London.

“How would being a National Park change the way we live, work and play in the city? How would we educate children, design buildings, plan health services or create new leisure activities differently if we started thinking of London as a National Park?”

“It’s a bit of an outside-of-the box curve ball, but sleep on it and you will realise what a great idea it is. Being the world’s first National Park city would celebrate and consolidate London’s position in the world as a leading, green world city that invests in the health and wellbeing of its people, which is great for both new and mature business and employees. Besides, wouldn’t you like to live in London and a National Park at the same time? I know I would!”

At the GTE Conference in January 2013, I heard about the work that was underway on a new area of the Geographical Association's website.
This was being led by Andrea Tapsfield and colleagues on the GA's Teacher Education Special Interest Group.

The background was that with an increasing number of teachers being mentored within schools as part of their training, alongside the needs of NQTs who would need continuing support. There has been considerable effort to prepare a range of materials on all aspects of the task of MENTORING colleagues since then.

Monday, 17 March 2014

One of the things about being a prolific blogger is that things you write disappear off the main section of the blog quite quickly.
I thought it was worth reminding you of something that I created a while back with the guy on the left here...

Sunday, 9 March 2014

Distance stands for:
Demonstrating the Internet of School Things: a National collaborative experience

It's a project that I've been involved with along with a group of partners including INTEL, Sciencescope, CASA at UCL and the Open University.
Helen and Tom from Explorer HQ have worked with me to produce some exciting ideas, supported by Mark, Dan, Paul and other colleagues from Explorer HQ on the technical side.

We've been working to create educational materials for the schools involved in the Pilot, and ultimately schools all over the country.
Click the Resources tab on the website, and you will find that you can see some of these...
They would be useful to adapt even without access to the kit that the schools had.The website has developed tremendously since the start of the project...Follow Apps > Dashboard to see some of the live data feeds from the project.

Pupils are asked to relate the value of geography to a number of different settings. The significance of both human and physical geography could be considered at a variety of different levels. Pupils should demonstrate how geography can support their everyday lives, improve their understanding of the world’s people, places and environments and help to prepare them for life beyond school.

We want to hear how geography, be it the knowledge young people learn, the understanding they gain, or skills they develop, helps them in different aspects of their lives. This help might be at many different levels:

At school

At home with your family

When you travel and go on holidays

When you think about current events at home or abroad

Whether it will help you with further study, perhaps at university

Or lead to a particular career you would like to do

We are interested in answers which might look at both the serious and the fun sides of geography and particularly want to see how entrants can relate the value of geography to a number of different settings. We welcome applications which, as appropriate for the age range, recognise the value of both human and physical geography.

For the all categories appropriate and accurate geographical vocabulary should be used and we will provide additional credit for entries which use primary data collected by the student, alongsidesecondary data.